FINAL ARTIST PHILOSOPHY- outline

1: ways that art engages learning:

-imagination and creating art helps students perceive what does not exist yet.
-art can reflect upon experiences, emotions or what a student has learned in the classroom. Art gives them a way to reflect how they feel about that.
-art helps students feel as if they have individuality and it creates independent minds

2: what is the true purpose for education?

-to prepare students for the world
-to help them form their own mind-with their own interests, opinions and emotions

3: what do you believe is the purpose for art education?

-to give certain cognitive skills to students to deal with a variety of different situations in the world
-to help students form their own individuality and have confidence in their own individuality.

Four scholars -

Eisner
Bell Hooks
Maxine Greene
Oaks & Lipton

When Learning Matters.

this article helped bring about new ideas for me on why art education is so important to the development of students. It helped me reflect further on my artist philosophy. The arts are so important in education because the arts help give students confidence in their individuality. It helps each student acknowledge that their individual experiences and opinions matter, and through art, they can create something that is uniquely theirs. The article quotes Maxine Greene, and I really like her philosophy of how the arts can create an individual mind. The article says: "In the arts, a third space is opened where students draw on their "lived world" (a first place) and what they have learned from their teachers (a second space) to create and express something new, something no one else could have made" The arts help create an individual mind, with unique opinions and philosophies, and when a student can create something beautiful out of their "lived world", it gives them confidence in their lives, and confidence in their opinions, and their "lived world." The article helped me realize why the arts have helped me, and why I want to pass them onto others. The arts have helped me build confidence in my opinions and how I interpret what I learn, and therefore, encouraged me to learn more. This article helped me formulate my artist philosophy.

Releasing the Imagination - Greene

I really appreciated what Greene said about the imagination being a powerful tool to step into alternate realities and see things beyond your own perception. I feel her article helped me think deeper into my research project, and her ideas made me think of Eisner's Visual Culture. The imagination helps us envision what could be possible, or how others may live, think and feel. When we learn about other cultures, the imagination helps us use facts we learn to envision lifestyles that can be so different from ours. The imagination helps us envision how we may feel in someone else's shoes, and is a powerful tool for understanding others, our realities and other people's realities.

Art is experience

"In order to understand the esthetic in its ultimate and approved forms, one must begin with it in the raw."

The name of the person who created the piece of art, the prestige of the gallery the art is shown in, the difficulties of the methods used to make the piece all change the aura of the piece of artwork. The artist's statement can add a completely different aura to a piece. A statement can transform a completely mundane piece into something intelligent. Sometimes a piece of art is only the statement. Duchamp was able to make art out of a toilet seat because of his name, and his statement about the piece. There are so many factors that change the aura of the artwork. It is hard to strip a piece of art of all these elements and see it for what it truly is. I feel that with Western Art, it is almost impossible to view the art in its raw form, stripped of all these factors.



RESEARCH::
my research is going well. i have found a lot of magazine articles and books on multicultural education that talk about it from all different viewpoints. I got a very good start on it over break. The more I read about the ideas of multicultural education and the benefits it provides the more i believe in it and am interested in it. I am very happy I chose that subject.

Oaks + Lipton chapter three

Lipton and Oaks talk about pyschology and sociology in this chapter. They talk about different theories of how the mind learns and percieves. They mostly talk about Piaget's theories, which I found very interesting. These ideas help me understand the difficulties and the accomplishments I have had while learning. It affirms and gives me a deeper understanding of how one learns. Piaget's theories helped me understand the frustration and ease one feels through learning. The theory that children think differently than adults. How we can move up different levels to understand concepts deeper. It makes me wonder how our creative mind may change from a child to an adult, as we gain more logic as we grow older. I thought the concept of disequiliberium was interesting. How frustration can motivate us, because we want to reach that balanced equilibrium again. When i am frustrated during an art project, this theory will help me talk myself through the frustration.

The most interesting theory was the theory of multidimensional education. We tend to think of education as a linear thing, but there is much depth to one's mind, and it is not that simple. The theory of multidimensional education gives me confidence in the way I learn, because while I was going to public school growing up, I always felt like I was not benefitting from traditional education. It made me feel like i was outside of some norm. But as I am older, it's quite obvious that most schools do not fuse the theory of multidimensional education into their cirriculum, so those who do not benefit from traditional education get cast aside.

The quote I chose from this reading is

Multidimensional Intelligence: one intelligence promotes analytical and critical thinking, one leades to the development of creative new ideas, and one enables humans to respond quickly and productively to everday events and experiences.

Teaching to Trangress

I chose several quotes that reflect each other. Some are just fragments of sentences. There were so many quotes I found inspiring in this reading.

Learning is revolution.
The difference between education as the practice of freedom and education that merely strives to reinforce domination.
Learning could be liberatory.



Education can be extremely limiting, and brainwashing, if it is used the wrong way. If you are told what to think instead of discovering information for yourself. We should be able to question every bit of information we are given.

The difference between education as the practice of freedom and education that merely strives to reinforce domination.

That quote reminds me of the difference between two different high schools I went to. One was your typical public school, and the other took a different approach to learning. The type of approach this writer talks of. The latter school valued opinion. The readings we would have were not information but other people's opinions, and we were taught to analyze them. The classes I took there really liberated my mind. They gave me different perspectives.

Most learning methods are meant to dull us. To make us more docile and obedient. Most learning methods are taught not to question the order of things, because those who question are considered dangerous. Learning methods that liberate allow us to shape and control our own lives, instead of letting other people control us. In Oaks and Lipton's essay, they give us the history of education. Education has shifted whenever the government feels as if they have to produce a certain type of citizen. Traditional teaching methods cater to what our nation might need politically or economically. They try to shape us, instead of letting us shape ourselves. We can liberate ourselves and be in control of our individuality if we learn to. If used the right way, education can free us.

Art Fair Reflection

While watching the art fair presentations, I learned of the approaches my peers want to take to art education. I learned what they are trying to get out of the class, and what interest they want to pursue in education. Hearing all of their questions, made me question my interests and what I want to get out of this class. Their research gave me new insights and new questions I would like to answer for myself during this class.

It also showed me how many projects, schools and organizations occur in the Bay Area Community. There is so much going on here to service the people. It's an amazing area to live in. The Bay Area really flourishes in providing programs to educate children and adults in all sorts of fields. There are so many opportunities here.

Hearing other student's presentations gave me more insight on what my outlook and thesis on art education would be. What kind of approach I would like to take. This class, and the feedback I get from my peers is so great because I can actually apply it to my teaching at Longfellow Middle School. I can experiment with different methods of teaching, so I can find out which one is the best for me and my students.